Another famous pearl mentioned by Pliny was the one which Julius Cæsar presented to Servilia, mother of Brutus, the value of which he notes as six million sestertii.[[482]]
Peroz Pearl. The historian Procopius,[[483]] of the sixth century, tells of a magnificent pearl which belonged to Peroz, or Firuz (459–484), one of the Sassanian kings of Persia. In the course of his disastrous battle with the White Huns, in which both he and his sons perished, Peroz, having a presentiment of the misfortune about to befall him, took the pearl from his right ear and cast it away, lest any one should wear it after him. This pearl is described as being “such as no king had ever worn up to that time.” Procopius, however, thinks it more probable that the ear of Peroz was cut off in the combat, and he states that the emperor (Zeno, 426–491) was very anxious to buy the gem from the Huns, but that all search for it was in vain. Nevertheless, a rumor was current that it was recovered later, but that another pearl was substituted for it and sold to Kobad, a successor of Peroz.
A different version is given by Panciroli,[[484]] who quotes Zonaras, a Byzantine historian of the twelfth century, as his authority. According to this version Justinian the Great, who succeeded to the throne forty-three years after the death of Peroz, offered one hundred pounds of gold (about $25,000) for the pearl, but the barbarians refused to part with it, preferring to keep it as a memorial of Persian folly. On the coins of Peroz he is represented wearing an earring with three pendants, one of which may have been this wonderful pearl.
Charles the Bold. One of the greatest jewels of the fifteenth century was that belonging to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1433–1477). According to notes and drawings[[485]] made in 1555 by J. J. Fugger of Nuremberg, who was the banker jeweler of his generation, this consisted of a large pyramid diamond five eighths of an inch square at the base, with the apex cut as a four-rayed star in relief; surrounding this were three rectangular pyramid-shaped rubies and three magnificent pear-shaped pearls, and a large ovate pearl was suspended from the lowest ruby. The pear pearls are described as measuring half an inch in diameter and must have weighed about sixty grains each. This magnificent jewel was probably the most celebrated in Europe during the fifteenth century. According to Comines, on the defeat of the Grand Duke and the plundering of his baggage by the Swiss at Granson in 1476, the ornament was found by a careless soldier who tossed it away, but retained the gold box containing it. On second thought, he searched for and recovered the jewel and sold it to a priest for one florin, and the ecclesiastic sold it to a Bernese government official for the sum of three florins. Some years later this jewel, together with the ducal cap of Charles the Bold, which was covered with pearls, and bore a plume case, set with diamonds (points), alternating with pearls and balas-rubies, was sold by the Bernese government to Jacob Fugger, as related by J. J. Fugger in the manuscript above noted, “for no more than 47,000 florins.” In the vain hope that it would be purchased by Emperor Charles V, grandson of Charles the Bold, Fugger held the jewel for many years, but he broke up the cap and reset the stones in it for Maximilian II. The brooch was finally sold to Henry VIII of England just before his death, and it passed to his daughter and successor, Bloody Mary, who presented it to her Spanish bridegroom, Philip. Thus, after seventy-six years, the jewel was restored to a descendant of the original owner. This history has been given at some length owing to its illustration of the manner in which great pearls were easily lost on battle-fields and were passed about from one country to another.
GAIKWAR OF BARODA, 1908
Tararequi Pearls. The early American fisheries yielded several magnificent pearls, many of which eventually became part of the imperial Spanish jewels. Prominent among these was the Huerfana or Sola. According to Gomara, this was secured in 1515 from the Indians at Tararequi, in the Gulf of Panama, in a large collection which weighed 880 ounces. It was pear-shaped and weighed thirty-one carats. Gomara states that this pearl was purchased from Gaspar de Morales, leader of the Spanish expedition, by a merchant, for the sum of 12,000 castilians. “The purchaser could not sleep that night for thinking on the fact that he had given so much money for one stone, and sold it the very next day to Pedrarias de Avila, for his wife Donna Isabel de Bovadilla”; and afterward it passed to Isabella, wife of Emperor Charles V (1500–1558). It was remarkable for its luster, color, and clearness, as well as for its size. Another large pearl in this collection weighed twenty-six carats.
Oviedo Pearl. As already noted on page 237, in his “Historia natural y general de las Indias,” published at Toledo in 1526, Gonzalo de Oviedo wrote of having purchased at Panama a pearl weighing twenty-six carats for which he paid 650 times its weight in fine gold, and which he claimed was the “greatest, fairest and roundest” that had ever been seen at Panama. Probably this was the twenty-six-carat pearl obtained at Tararequi by Gaspar de Morales in 1515. At 650 times its weight in gold the value of this pearl would be $2294.54; representing a base of $.2124 per grain; but at a base of $5 per grain the same pearl would be worth $54,080, equaling 15,320 times its weight in gold.
Temple of Talomeco. Among great collections of pearls, some writers would place that described by Garcilasso de la Vega as having been found by De Soto and his followers in 1540 in the Temple of Talomeco near the Savannah River in America.[[486]] According to Garcilasso, the quantity of pearls there was so great that 300 horses and 900 men would not have sufficed for its transportation, vastly excelling every other if not all other collections in the history of the world. Unfortunately the accuracy of this account has not been unquestioned.
La Peregrina. Most celebrated among the early American pearls was La Peregrina (the incomparable), or the Philip II pearl, which weighed 134 grains. According to Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that he saw it at Seville in 1597,[[487]] this was found at Panama in 1560 by a negro who was rewarded with his liberty, and his owner with the office of alcalde of Panama. Other authorities note that it came from the Venezuelan fisheries in 1574. It was carried to Spain by Don Diego de Temes, who presented it to Philip II (1527–1598). Jacques de Treco, court jeweler to the king, is credited with saying that it might be worth 30,000, 50,000 or 100,000 ducats, as one might choose to estimate, for in fact it was so remarkable as to be beyond any standard valuation. If we can credit Garcilasso, at one time this pearl decorated the crown of the Blessed Virgin in the church of Guadeloupe, which was resplendent with gems.[[488]] A contemporaneous account[[489]] notes that it was worn at Madrid by Queen Margarita, wife of Philip III, at the fêtes given in celebration of the treaty of peace between that country and England in 1605.